1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication terminal. In particular, it relates to a communication terminal suitable for a mobile telephone or a mobile information terminal which performs data communications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communication terminals have rapidly become pervasive in today's society. The high functionality and miniaturization is achieved by the advancement of communication and packaging technologies. Conventional communication terminals include a mobile telephone in which a voice call can be received, and a mobile information terminal through which various kinds of information content can be browsed over the Internet. In particular, as to the conventional mobile telephone, not only the number of users is increased, but also reliable service has to be provided. For example, various kinds of data communications such as reception/transmission of e-mails and content data browsing have been achieved by access to data communication networks such as the Internet.
On the other hand, it has been predicted that network congestion will rise with the increasing number of users. In addition, the increasing data load due to the increased data quantities required by high-grade service will also clog networks. Consequently, even if communication speed is increased to a certain extent, the conventional communication terminal seems to take more time in data communications.
In the case where desired data is downloaded or target content data is browsed in the conventional communication terminal by accessing the Internet, a user of the conventional communication terminal recognizes completion of data communications by watching for a message indicating the completion of downloading or browsing of the content data that is displayed on a display screen, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD). However, as the time required for the data communications to complete becomes longer, the time when the user must carefully watch the display screen to recognize the completion of the data communications becomes longer as well. Moreover, it is necessary to carefully watch the display screen until the completion of transmission at the time of transmission of data, such as e-mail, from the communication terminal as well as at the time of data reception in the communication terminal.
Furthermore, in the case where a communication charge for the communication terminal is incurred for not a communication data quantity but a line connection time, the user keeps a careful watch on the display screen to end a line connection as soon as the data communication has completed, thereby suppressing extra charges.
In consideration of the characteristics such as portability of the communication terminal, the downloading or browsing operation may be performed when the user is walking or riding in a car. Therefore, it is difficult or dangerous for the user to keep watching the display screen until the completion of the data communications such as downloading or browsing of the content data.
In view of these problems, there have been proposed various techniques relating to conventional communication terminals not requiring that the user thereof to carefully watch the display screen.
Such a conventional communication terminal will be discussed with reference to FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional communication terminal 10 is connected to a host computer 11 via a communication line 12. The communication terminal 10 includes a communication processing controller 13 for controlling communications with the host computer 11, an input unit 14 for inputting various kinds of instructions to the communication processing controller 13, a display 15, and a speaker 16. The communication processing controller 13 includes a data receiver 17 for receiving data from the host computer 11 via the communication line 12 and a speaker controller 18 for controlling a sound output of the speaker 16.
In the communication terminal 10, data from the host computer 11 is received by the data receiver 17 via the communication line 12 connected to the host computer 11 according to an instruction from the input unit 14. The communication processing controller 13 monitors the data receiver 17 as to whether the data from the host computer 11 has completely received. If the completion of data reception is detected, information indicative of the completion of the data reception is displayed on the display 15. Further, an output sound for giving a notice of the completion of the data reception is output from the speaker 16 under control of the speaker controller 18. Consequently, it is unnecessary for the user to keep a careful watch on the display 15 during the data reception, because the user can recognize the completion of the data reception by the output sound from the speaker 16.
This conventional communication terminal is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 10-49491.
However, in the conventional communication terminal, the completion of the data reception is notified by the output sound irrespective of the amount of data received or the elapsed time period of the data reception. In the conventional communication terminal, in most cases, a small amount of data is communicated because of the small display screen. In general, the smaller the amount of data received, the shorter the data receiving period. Therefore, if the notification is performed by the output sound on every data reception, the sound bothers people who may be present around the place at which the communication terminal is used, and further, frequent notifications are undesirable for the user himself. In the conventional communication terminal, the user can preset whether the notification by the output sound is performed. However, if the output sound is preset to not ring for the notification, the data reception cannot be notified by the output sound even if the amount of received data is large.